“In the absence of any meaningful action from the F.C.C., Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest,” the company said. In the statement, Cablevision reiterated its belief that “the retransmission consent system is badly broken and needs to be fixed.”

So does this mean Cablevision now supports ‘a la carte’ channel pricing for its own customers ?

If we had cable choice, Newscorp and Cablevision would not be able to use customers as a wedge in their bargaining. I’d simply switch to Comcast or Time Warner. And before you say it, FioS is not available in my Hoboken neighborhood.

I have been using rabbit ears with ATSC signals long before the big change-over last year and I get in all channels just fine. Fox5 is simulcast on 5.1 and 9.2, so if one signal does not come in you get the other. Most stations broadcast in 720p, but CBS does it in 1080i. And all of this is without the extra-compression added by both FioS and Cablevision – ergo better picture.